Chapter 7
Kayama Nemuri walked away from the laundromat with thoughts spiraling around her head. Her interaction with the boys, whom she has heard plenty of from Hizashi over the phone, has left her puzzled. The descriptions that she heard from Hizashi didn’t quite fit the boys. He said they were relatively dirty, had torn clothes, and tended to have some scrapes and bruises. The boys she saw were clean, had some decent clothes on and no visible scarps, bruises, hell, no bandages were visible.
Walking away, she clutched her drawstring bag and pulled her phone out of her dress pocket. Quickly dialing Hizashi, she holds the phone to her ear and looks back to the slowly disappearing store. “Y’ello Nem! Need somethin’?” Hisashi’s voice calls, muffled by the phone's quality, a soft meow was heard in the background.
“Hi ‘Zashi!~ I just met your boys.” She purred, continuing her walk, slowly making her way home.
“M-My boys?”
“Yes! The three little boys you and Shou told me about! They were at the laundromat I’m using till my washer and dryer get fixed.”
“Oh wow! How were they? Were they al-”
“‘Zashi, you worry wort! They were fine, I almost didn’t realize it was them. I met the little green baby first, he came in with a tub full of clothes, and by himself. The other two didn’t come by til I was done!” Nemuri explained, the streets around her slowly became less busy as she got closer to her apartment building.
“Oh! Those Little Listeners! You said you met the little green boy first?” Nemuri could hear the excitement laced in his voice. Nemuri resisted a giggle as she imagined Hizashi doing a simple little dance, jumping in place and all.
“Yea! He came in as I was loading the dryer carrying a black storage container filled with clothes, they all appeared to be kids clothes. He loaded the washer and sat in front of it.”
“Did it seem like they were all his clothes?”
“Maybe, we chatted for a while. Said he was in 4th grade with the other two boys, who he so lovingly called ‘Kacchan and Eichan’. Honestly warmed my heart!~” Nemuri cooed, arriving at her complex.
“Hahaha, I remember them calling him ‘Z’ or ‘Zu’. What did you guys chat about?”
“Apparently, he and the other two had found a little kitten! ‘Kacchan’ and ‘Eichan’ went with ‘Kacchan’s parents to the story to get some stuff for the babe. When the other two finally came to greenie, I saw the blonde boy holding a bundle of cloth, which I’m betting is the little kitty.” Nemuri arrives at her apartment and let’s herself in, taking her shoes off in the genkan and setting her keys in a little dish by the door. The door shuts with a soft cliff.
“Ah, fun! I remember when Shou' and I got Espresso, she was so small!” Hizashi sighs softly, voice fond.
“Oh! Also! Funny thing, greenie recognized me! Apparently his mom is a fan of me and knew who I was!” Nemuri gasps.
“Oh shit really? That doesn’t happen, like, ever!” Hizashi gasps loudly.
“Yea! I had asked who his favorite hero was, like a normal child, he said All Might, but then, he looked at me square in the eyes, holding eye contact and all and said his ‘momma like Midnight!’. Then the little babey winked at me. He winked at me ‘Zashi!” Nemuri stressed, her shock clear as day in her voice.
“Oh my god! The Little Listener is a sneaky little one!”
“I was so shocked! I need to meet up with you and Shou' sometime soon, explain in more detailed what happened. I just got home from that and I need to finish some chores. I’ll talk to you later, love!”
“Alright Nem. See you later!” and with that, they hung up and Nemuri was left to her thoughts.
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“Look at this little baby!” Izuku says, laying on the floor of the laundromat. The little kitten has climbed up his side and is now pawing at his nose. Her ears twitch as her tail sways happily. She flips between paws, hitting his nose gently and releasing soft meows. Katsuki and Eijirou watch on with fond smiles. The kitten starts kneading at Izuku's chest and he raises an arm scratching gently behind the kittens ear, causing soft purrs.
The dryer beeps soon after, startling all three boys, the kitten as well, who ends up startling enough to fall off Izuku's chest. Izuku giggles and sits up, handing the kitten to Eijirou. He grabs the storage container and loads the dried clothes into it. They gather their things and set the kitten into the container of warm clothes. The kitten immediately releases loud purrs, rolling around in the clothes and burying under the close, leaving the tail swaying above the clothes.
Izuku giggles and adjusts his grip on the container. Eijirou smiles and holds the shopping bag watching Izuku and the kitten. “We need to pick a name for the little fluff ball, we can’t keep calling her ‘Kitten’.” He comments as they leave the laundromat and begin their walk home.
They share casual conversations the whole time, walking and talking. Avoiding people and weaving through the crowds, walking all the way home. The kitten occasionally meows and pokes her head out from the piles of clothes, her nose twitching as she smells the air. They giggle and laugh, tease and banter all the way home. People watch on fondly as the three boys continue on their adventure home.
Arriving back at the beach, they walked down the stairs that lead to the sand and went to an entrance. Following the path through, they come to the center. Izuku looks at Eijirou and Katsuki, “Can one of you start a fire? Since one of us has to stay here for patrol tonight, a fire will be needed to watch over the little babe.”
“I got it.” Katsuki says walking over and placing a few dried pieces of driftwood into their pit and raises an opened palm towards it. His hands spark and smoke before small explosions sound off, catching onto the driftwood and starting to slowly burn. Katsuki sets off a few more as the fire grows, and soon it is sustainable on it’s own. It casts the shadows of the center in a soft glow of orange.
Having left the base to get their groceries and some things for the kitten a little after noon, the laundry taking roughly two hours and the walks home makes it around dinner time; around 5 o’clock. “I’ll get something started for us for dinner.” Eijirou says, setting the bag with the items for the kitten near the fire pit and goes to the shipping container. Izuku goes to the fire pit and sets the container down, the kitten meowing constantly.
Gently lifting the kitten from the bin, Izuku holds her in front of his face and the kitten raises a paw and sets it on his nose with a loud ‘merrow’. Izuku giggles and scrunches his nose and shakes his head slightly. He sets the kitten down on the sand and watches. She stands stock still, her little toes wiggling as she takes cautious steps. “Must feel weird for her…” Izuku thinks as he grabs the food dish she has as well as the kibble. The bowl is metal colored pastel blue with a silhouetted cartoon drawing of a cat walking following a trail of fish doodles around the bowl. It’s rimmed with black rubber on the bottom. Opening the kibble bag, Izuku takes his hand and fills the bowl with a small handful.
Eijirou has come back from the shipping container and is holding a few bottles of water, a few packs of ramen and a metal cooking pot with two handles. He grabs two metal stakes with hooks on top and embeds them next to the put in the sand before surrounding them in rocks to keep them steady. Then grabbing another bar and lays it across, said bar has chains with hooks ready to hold the cooking put. Eijirou sets the cooking pot on the chains and the flames of the fire licks the bottom.
Katsuki is finishing any lingering chores around the center, picking up any fallen trash from the mounds and putting them back, re-organizing the piles Eijirou was setting this morning for recyclable, restorable, and sellable. He adds anything else that he finds. After setting down an old beer bottle in the recycle pile, the kitten walks over, still unused to the feeling of sand. Katsuki chuckles and gently picks the kitten up one-handed around the belly. The kitten just meows and dangles.
Eijirou pours the water bottles into the pot. Katsuki walks back over with the kitten climbing across his shoulders, but gets grabbed before he can fall off and set back on the sand, in front of her food bowl. She sniffs the food a few times before taking a piece and chewing. It’s soft kibble and easy to chew. She seems to enjoy it and starts to eat the whole bowl, clearly very hungry.
Izuku giggles and grabs the bin, “I’m going to put these away. We need to decide who’s going to stay here with her while the others go on patrol.” Walking into the container, he goes to the shelving unit they had found and repaired. It helped three boxes of their vigilante uniforms and then the rest of their clothes were folded and stacked. Izuku could hear Katsuki and Eijirou talking but their words were muffled. Izuku set to taking out and folding the clothes and setting them on each person’s designated shelf (Katsuki’s the top shelf, Eijirou is the second to the top, then Izuku’s and the very bottom is filled with old blankets and things for the deep winter or deep summer).
A meow at the opening on the container pulled Izuku’s attention away from folding the last of the shirts. “Well hi.” He giggles as the kitten marches over, bouncing over and crawling into Izuku’s lap. She stands on her hind legs and paws at Izuku’s chest meowing and purring. The kitten is followed by two sets of footsteps as Eijirou and Katsuki walk inside. “Hey, who's going out? I’m fine with anything.” Putting the last of the shirts away, Izuku holds the kitten to his chest and stands.
“Katsuki and I are gonna go after dinner, which should be done soon.” Eijirou answers, walking over to another shelving unit and grabs their bowls and some chopsticks, as well a large spoon.
“We’ll make it a short one, go out for a few hours.” Katsuki says, walking over to Izuku and the kitten. “We still need a name for this little fucker.” he says, reaching forwards and petting the little kitten before reaching up and hitting the top of Izuku’s head, a smug look on his face when the other boy whines.
“Hm…” Eijirou hums. “I’m so bad at naming things, I’ll leave it to you two.” And with that, he leaves, bowls and chopsticks in hand back to the cooking pot. Izuku and Katsuki share a look before bursting into giggles.
“What do you think, Kacchan?” Izuku asks, as the kitten raises her head and headbutts his chin, meowing.
“Queen Explosion!” Katsuki exclaims, a large smirk across his face, his hands on his hips and stance wide. Izuku burst into another fit of giggles.
“No! We can’t name her that!” He gasps, nuzzling the kitten still giggling. “Yuki?” he asks, looking at the kitten, who just blinks at him and paws his cheek meowing.
“No, that’s so generic, everyone does that!” Katsuki exclaims then pouts. “And what’s wrong with my name?”
“It’s too mean for a little kitten!” Izuku counters. Katsuki goes to counter but gets stopped by Eijirou’s laughter from the center. The other two share a look before walking out. Eijirou is using a large spoon, dishing up three portions of ramen. “What’s so funny, Eichan?”
“You guys banter about the name. ‘Tsuki’s name made me laugh and then your comment.” Eijirou chuckles, dishing the last of the food and handing one to Katsuki, keeping a hold on Izuku’s bowl, as he still holds the kitten.
“Well, you say you are shit at names, but do you have any other ideas?” Katsuki says, starting to eat his ramen, his posture slouched.
“Hm… Ōkoku.” Eijirou says, a thoughtful look on his face. Izuku sets the kitten on the ground, and she walks to her food bowl, now cleared of any kibble and replaced with water.
“Ōkoku? I like it!” Izuku says, rushing over to the drinking kitten and picking her up, who yelps in protest and paws at his face. “Do you like it? Ōkoku?” She just meows and squirms till she’s set back on the ground. She goes back to her water. “Kacchan?” Izuku says between giggles, looking at him.
“It’s tolerable…” He grumbles, but his lips form a soft smile. Eijirou chuckles and hands Izuku his bowl and chopsticks, before grabbing his own bowl and digging in.